Review Insights · App Store
Monarch: Budget & Track Money
Monarch Money, Inc. · 88,615 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
88,615 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 36 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"monarch"
12 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Super Sketchy to cancel. They hid the “manage subscription” button on the website version of monarch on my phone (aka in app and on my laptop I could not get to the manage subscription button under the billing tab)" - Col10Biss
2
"features"
12 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
3
"product"
9 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
4
"subscription"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Super Sketchy to cancel. They hid the “manage subscription” button on the website version of monarch on my phone (aka in app and on my laptop I could not get to the manage subscription button under the billing tab)" - Col10Biss
5
"been"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
6
"behind"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bait and switch paywalled. They promised new features for months taking feedback from the community of paying customers. When push comes to shove… they slam the new features behind a paywall three times more expensive than the current product. So long monarch you h…" - Feebdack
7
"year"
7 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
8
"core"
7 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Disappointed in the addition of Plus. Loved the app retirement planning should have been a core feature not tied to business on plus most likely will switch" - Vic2224568
9
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "For an app encouraging money transparency, it’s not very transparent. If you cancel a monthly subscription, they’ll give you 50% the next 3 months, FYI. Anyways, it was so annoying to cancel I actually found it to be almost shady. Monarch subscription didn’t show up under my normal Apple app subscriptions l…" - b_cunn
10
"plus"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
11
"business"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
12
"forecasting"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "And now they want us to pay $199/year??. I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of a…" - Tkrews
📋 All 36 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Bank Info Leak
Not sure how much it correlates but after downloading this app no more than a week after my bank account information was stolen and someone tried to open a credit card in my name
Super Sketchy to cancel
They hid the “manage subscription” button on the website version of monarch on my phone (aka in app and on my laptop I could not get to the manage subscription button under the billing tab)
Too many disconnected institutions
Unfortunately too many institutions get disconnected. Not really useful when you try to consolidate your assets in one single tool.
So manual and hard to collaborate
Unbelievable how bad the pre-determined categories are. How hard is it to google the name of a merchant and know what they sell? Also so remarkable hard to collaborate with your spouse. So diasspointing
Doesn’t work
I tried to add my bank through the app and the web. Although my bank is in the drop down and I have the correct bank info I got stuck on matching the pictures. I also tried the troubleshooting page. I could not find a way to speak to a live agent. Not worth all the effort.
Disappointed in the addition of Plus
Loved the app retirement planning should have been a core feature not tied to business on plus most likely will switch
Can’t login in via Google on iPhone
It’s been months and cannot login in on the iPhone
Retirement forecast should be part of core
Retirement forecast should be part of core
Bait and switch paywalled
They promised new features for months taking feedback from the community of paying customers. When push comes to shove… they slam the new features behind a paywall three times more expensive than the current product.
So long monarch you have ruined the trust and goodwill you had.
So long monarch you have ruined the trust and goodwill you had.
Feature Gating
Forecasting is a core feature, stop gating. If you want to have a product for business fine, but make it a different app.
New pricing strategy is not good
We pay a premium for a premium product. You begin to add new features to a premium tier that we paid to fun the development of. Also that is paired with business features that I won’t get any value from for multiples of my current premium price = terrible.
Money Hungry Corpos
Put new features behind an even bigger paywall, with features just barely finally striking even with mint
Plus Tier Is A Joke
This was a great app, but locking forecasting behind an absurdly priced Plus tier with other irrelevant features is a joke. Will be looking to move away as this is a very bad sign the company has no clue how to segment their product.
Logging in is painful
I downloaded this on my iPad. On sign in I selected with sign in with my Apple account because that’s what I thought I used for my login credentials. Lo and behold, that’s not the case, as it prompted me to buy a subscription or start a trial (I already pay for this app). At this point I realized it must not be under my Apple account but simply under my email. Unfortunately for me, there’s no way to sign out or otherwise go back to the login screen without starting the trial, buying a subscription, or deleting the app, re-downloading it, and selecting login via email. Absolute madness.
Bait and switch
Adding new features that should be in the base app behind expensive pay walls, very disappointed in the ethics of this company, especially after they got caught running fake ads last year for features which didn’t even exist. I cancelled my subscription there are better options
New Monarch Plus - fees too high
I’m concerned that Monarch is working to increase fees by rolling half baked features into Monarch Plus and charging $200 for it.
With no real competition, quality has gone off the cliff
Monarch has been great for us. I've recommended it to friends and family. But now, there are two things that drops my review from a 5 star to a 2 star.
First problem. They have decided to gatekeep new features to Monarch behind a new $299/year tier, 3x the price of the now "core" product, despite them promising the features to everyone. I would not have sneered at a mild price increase as compared to the competition it is a premium product. But $300/year is absolutely nuts if we even want to look at forecasting or investment analysis. This is the writing on the wall for Monarch, as now they have ZERO incentive to bring any new features to $99 subscription tier.
Additionally, transactions are now arbitrarily changing merchants. The original statement is the same as it always has been, they seem to have some AI changing the merchant for reasons? This messes up transfers and any other transaction rules that were set EXACTLY right a few months ago. Even if you have rules this AI process will IGNORE them. Why have rules then??
First problem. They have decided to gatekeep new features to Monarch behind a new $299/year tier, 3x the price of the now "core" product, despite them promising the features to everyone. I would not have sneered at a mild price increase as compared to the competition it is a premium product. But $300/year is absolutely nuts if we even want to look at forecasting or investment analysis. This is the writing on the wall for Monarch, as now they have ZERO incentive to bring any new features to $99 subscription tier.
Additionally, transactions are now arbitrarily changing merchants. The original statement is the same as it always has been, they seem to have some AI changing the merchant for reasons? This messes up transfers and any other transaction rules that were set EXACTLY right a few months ago. Even if you have rules this AI process will IGNORE them. Why have rules then??
Disappointed in Paywalls
Been using Monarch with a financial advisor for the last year. Core features have been pretty good. Have appreciated security-minded and ad-free experience. Participated in beta and by their own admission, they rushed out these new features and behind a $299 paywall. Forecasting should be part of Core or a slightly higher tier but not a tier that includes business functionality. I really wanted to like forecasting but rushing it out in the basic state and then charging extra for it has changed my view of Monarch.
Another tech bro money grab
STOP BEING EVIL! The reason for a consumer to pay a subscription fee is you get support and product/feature updates. But you take our money, use it to build new features, then hide it behind an ADDITIONAL paywall. Despicable.
New Pricing
Once a great service at an ok process turned into a terrible process.
Beware of price increases
Monarch has rolled out a new “plus” version for an addition $200 per year. Forecasting should have been a feature in the core product. Also now the app has ads when one of their core marketing claims is no ads. Very disappointed and might look into a new finance tracking app
Upsell ads after already paying
I already pay for the app, and now you’re serving me upsell ads in the middle of the transaction view? Horrible.
And so it goes
Monarch is a decent aggregator and was heading in a direction I liked, but with the new Plus tier subscription it now gates core features like retirement planning behind a $299/year price tag and lumps them in with business features. Thats quite expensive compared to competitors in the retirement planning space and it sets a bad precedent where I don’t trust that future development efforts will be equitably distributed to those on the $99/year non-Plus subscription.
Disappointing - waste of money
What a waste of money on an early subscription.
This app has a lot of issues and honestly feels like it’s still in beta.
After I resubscribed (and there’s basically no value in the free tier), I had to manually disconnect each account and add them all over again.
The sync frequency is also very poor. I still have to rely on other apps like Copilot to get faster updates.
I raised these concerns with customer support, but didn’t receive any meaningful explanation.
This app has a lot of issues and honestly feels like it’s still in beta.
After I resubscribed (and there’s basically no value in the free tier), I had to manually disconnect each account and add them all over again.
The sync frequency is also very poor. I still have to rely on other apps like Copilot to get faster updates.
I raised these concerns with customer support, but didn’t receive any meaningful explanation.
Still inferior to OG Mint
Mint’s cash flow charts were still superior than what’s Monarch right now (April 2026), which has poor scaling. Monarch cannot connect to my work’s 401k AT ALL (lifeatwork portal) and it hasn’t been able to maintain a connection to my Nordstrom card for over a year.
Trust a product that hallucinates transactions and has super slow support?
What I initially thought was a pretty useful product, helping me to organize my finances and manage a budget, has turned into a nightmare. For the last 4 months, Monarch is hallucinating transactions. I spent a lot of time reviewing my statements and working with my financial institutions to verify that the transactions don’t exist. I’ve been going back and forth with support, a useless person named Juvy Ann S, for a month, with no info and no fix. I never get more than one response per day, and sometimes there are multiples of days between responses, causing this to drag out without resolution. All I get are empty apologies. I’m done being patient. I need a fix or a refund. Let me ask your this: How do you trust a product that creates fake transactions?
Can’t tell expense from income
I work for a company that provides service that I have a monthly bill for, but that I also receive a biweekly pay paycheck from and Monarch could not differentiate between a recurring expense from a same company as I get a recurring paycheck from the same company. Highly disappointing.
Is this just a scam?
This app is supposed to help you with financial planning and budgeting. It even offers to help you find unnecessary subscriptions and expenses to cancel. That makes it very odd that the entice you to sign up for the free trial, and then they bill you with no notification or message that your free trial is ending. If this were truly a good and useful app, they would notify you, and then you would opt in to paying for the app because it’s that good! Instead it’s just a hypocritical marketing scam that signifies the exact problem they tell you they will help you solve.
Used to love it, AI ruined it
After the recent update to include AI, everything took a turn for the worst. Accounts barely connect. The AI is terrible and gives incorrect advice. Help chat is with AI and randomly started speaking another language. I’ll be deleting this soon
For an app encouraging money transparency, it’s not very transparent
If you cancel a monthly subscription, they’ll give you 50% the next 3 months, FYI.
Anyways, it was so annoying to cancel I actually found it to be almost shady. Monarch subscription didn’t show up under my normal Apple app subscriptions list, and when I asked the app’s AI assistant for help canceling, it just kept loading. It also makes you toggle to a web browser (the direct in-app link managing your billing kept loading but never loaded). Could just be buggy, but interesting how it’s mainly buggy around cancellation.
Anyways, it was so annoying to cancel I actually found it to be almost shady. Monarch subscription didn’t show up under my normal Apple app subscriptions list, and when I asked the app’s AI assistant for help canceling, it just kept loading. It also makes you toggle to a web browser (the direct in-app link managing your billing kept loading but never loaded). Could just be buggy, but interesting how it’s mainly buggy around cancellation.
And now they want us to pay $199/year??
I’ve been a loyal Monarch customer for several years. This app has been a good budget tool with reliable account connections. However, Monarch has always sorely missed planning features like goal planning and retirement planning. As of an email this evening, they finally released these features, only now I’d have to pay an extra $100/year to access them ($199 total). That is a crazy ask for a feature that should be standard with a standard $99 annual plan.
Sure the new “Monarch Plus” gives a free Will creation and a few business-specific features, but no one asked for that.
Budget forecasting and planning are standard features that no one should have to pay extra for. It looks like new Monarch subscribers can look forward to future upcharges for any forthcoming new features. Just wait for the new “Monarch Plus with AI” product coming next month.
Monarch, you messed up. Look elsewhere for your budgeting software.
Sure the new “Monarch Plus” gives a free Will creation and a few business-specific features, but no one asked for that.
Budget forecasting and planning are standard features that no one should have to pay extra for. It looks like new Monarch subscribers can look forward to future upcharges for any forthcoming new features. Just wait for the new “Monarch Plus with AI” product coming next month.
Monarch, you messed up. Look elsewhere for your budgeting software.
Leaves much to be desired.
As a long time fan of mint the similarities are wonderful but too much gets lost in the weeds as the app tries to get innovative. Finances are complicated enough, can we please just get a straightforward app? The automated expenses are surprisingly not user friendly (esp considering mortgage payments). Slick graphs without numbers on them seem good for the graphics team but less so for people just wanting to track their money and seeing it easily in one space. Simplify please!
Not worth
Not bad for tracking basic transactions. The issue is that they will continue to ask for more money without actually shipping complete features.
Duplicates
It shows too many incorrect duplicate charges
Need Support
Unable to add payment. The card I added says declined but nothing hits my bank, no decline. I tried contacting support in app but get nowhere. I'd love to signup and give it a real go but I'm blocked right at the front door. Too bad
NFCU
I can’t even connect my bank account that I use as a veteran.
Sentiment summary
99%
Positive (4-5★)
0%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)